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FOXBORO - The tweaking of the Patriots' roster continued Monday morning, as they added a veteran cornerback (and past Patriot-killer), a tight end and an offensive tackle.

Deltha O'Neal, whose best days were spent with the Denver Broncos - and who schooled the Patriots on more than one occasion, including two of Tom Brady's first career interceptions in 2001 - signed as a free agent after being released by the Cincinnati Bengals. In addition, the Patriots claimed tight end Jason Pociask off waivers from the New York Jets and offensive tackle Mark LeVoir off waivers from the St. Louis Rams. To make room for the three newcomers, they released safety John Lynch and wide receiver Chad Jackson on Sunday and tight end Stephen Spach on Monday.

O'Neal, 31, is a two-time Pro Bowler in his ninth NFL season, having played in 116 games with 75 starts for Denver (2000-03) and Cincinnati (2004-07). The 5-foot-11, 194-pound cornerback has recorded 358 career tackles (289 solo), one sack, 31 interceptions for 403 yards and three touchdowns, 106 passes defended, three forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries. As a returner, he has totaled 57 kickoff returns for 1,274 yards (22.4 avg.) and a touchdown, and 136 punt returns for 1,368 yards (10.1 avg.) and two touchdowns.

"We played him last year in Cincinnati and I did some work on him going into that game and saw him the rest of the season and in preseason this year," Patriots' coach Bill Belichick said. "He is a very athletic corner, good ball skills, pretty big guy that goes up and plays a lot of press coverage - he has done that in the past. He's a physical player, good tackler, good interceptor, returner ... we've seen the back of his jersey on that a couple of times."

Although it's been seven years since O'Neal picked Brady twice in a 31-20 loss in Denver (Brady's fifth game as the Patriots' starter), the quarterback said he's happy he won't have to face O'Neal on the other side of the line of scrimmage any more. "There were four picks in the second half, actually in the fourth quarter," Brady said of the 2001 Denver loss. "He made a diving catch that was pretty awesome. You don't want to mess around with him that much. He has great ball skills. In college, he could do everything. He was a receiver, defensive back and he returned kicks. Hopefully, he can add some of that play-making ability to our team."

O'Neal was originally drafted by the Broncos in the first round (15th overall) of the 2000 NFL Draft out of California-Berkeley. He earned his first career Pro Bowl berth in 2001 with the Broncos and his second in 2005 with the Bengals.

"I'm very excited," safety Rodney Harrison said. "I played with him at the Pro Bowl before and I've known him for a long time. He's a very athletic guy and can do a lot of things. We're definitely excited about adding a guy like that to our arsenal."

Pociask, 25, has appeared in four career NFL games, all with Jets in 2007. The 6-foot-2, 259-pound tight end was originally selected by the Jets in the fifth round (150th overall) of the 2006 NFL Draft out of Wisconsin. He spent that entire season on injured reserve, then appeared in four games last season and recorded one catch for seven yards.

LeVoir, 26, has not appeared in an NFL game since being signed by the Chicago Bears as an undrafted free agent out of Notre Dame. The 6-foot-7, 306-pound tackle spent the entire 2006 season and the start of the 2007 season on Chicago's practice squad before being signed to the Rams' active roster in November. He was a day-of-game inactive for St. Louis in each of its final seven games last season.

Practice squad

The Patriots also signed offensive lineman Jacob Bender and tight end Tyson DeVree to their practice squad, bringing the squad to its full compliment of eight players.

Bender is the only one of the eight that wasn't with the Patriots in training camp, having taken the Hempstead-to-Foxboro shuttle from the Jets, with whom he has appeared in two regular-season games. The 6-foot-6, 315-pound lineman was a sixth-round pick (177th overall) of the Jets in 2007.

Faint praise

Rodney Harrison, who is entering his 15th NFL season, didn't exactly bowl over the media corps with his thoughts on departed veteran John Lynch, who would have been entering his 16th season had he stuck on the roster. "With John, all those numbers and accolades speak for themselves," Harrison said. "I have no control over that ... any time you lose a guy like that, John's had a wonderful career and if he's able to join us fine. If not, we have to move forward. Right now, you just deal with the people we have in the locker room. These are the people we know we're going to war with, and you can't really look outside of that."